That doesn't make anime cheating. Lowering the bar for american animation by excluding cartoons made in Japan so we can give US cartoons a "Good Try!" trophy is cheating.
What it comes down to is the intent of the question being asked. In my opinion, saying "cartoon" intends to limit the discussion to Western-style animation. Japanese animation retains the label "anime" among Western fans because it's recognized as being inherently different. It'd be kinda like polling a college-league basketball game, asking "who are the best players in this room?", and then the spotlights pan over to the NBA players observing the game on the sideline. Technically true, but not really in the spirit of the question. Of course, the OP can clarify his stance on the matter at any time. The way I see it though, seeing good writing practices in Western Animation is far more notable and momentous than in anime. It's not that the bar is lower, it's that the ceiling is low. There's simply very little opportunity for a writer to flex his or her muscle towards the dramatic in the western animation industry, whereas in Japan, it's pretty much a matter of course.
The reason this is bullshit is because you are admitting the inherent inferiority of western animation. Like we in the west can't produce something of real quality. Like we'll never be able to. This is a horrible attitude. Aside from the fact I don't agree that western animation is inherently inferior, you will never be able to improve in any arena if your policy is to simply remove from competition anyone who is better than you before you even begin. It's such a defeatist mentality.
Well, I have no doubt in my mind that a Western animation company could produce something as amazing as as, Ghost in the Shell: SAC but from what I gather, the companies perceive there is little to no interest in such animated fare for adults. So the cycle continues that cartoons are mainly for kids, teenagers as an outlier if you're lucky unless you wanna make gross out stuff like South Park or Family Guy.
I mean, it's no secret that Cartoon Network was notorious for burying any project that resembled a serialized drama. So again, the talent to create good things exists in North America, but the marketplace doesn't support any of that, so it generally doesn't happen. Projects like Avatar/Legend of Korra don't happen every year. More like once every 5 years, and with much behind-the-scenes sabotage and teeth pulling along the way before seeing things come to fruition, and often with compromises made to the original artistic vision. The idea of excluding anime from consideration isn't being "defeatist". The idea is that you remove the obvious, easy answers to foster a more in-depth discussion.
Alfred J. Kwak - super dark and deep for a kids show. Written and produced by a Dutch guy, animated in Japan. The show covers serious topics such as nazis, apartheid, classism and mixes it with fun, adventure and some science fiction. Other great shows that have already been mentioned in this thread: Batman TAS Gargoyles The Animals of Farthing Wood Cowboy Bebop Ghost in the Shell: SAC Rick & Morty F is for Family If we're including Transformers: Beast Wars Transformers: Animated
I don't think Anime is cheating, but a lot of it is based on vastly superior manga. See: In this case, can an anime be a "best written cartoon" if it's not even the "best written" version of the story?
Yeah, I would exclude anything adapted directly from an outside source. Something like Batman TAS is fine because they were just Batman-ish stories. But something like Hunter x Hunter or DBZ or whatever, they were directly adapting the published comic book story -- the writing was done before the decision was ever made to do a cartoon. But still, that's not archon's NBA vs high school basketball team analogy. That's two NBA teams, but one has terrible coaching staff.
The original cartoon I find to be a little better than the original manga for what it covered, but mostly because it skips the majority of the pre-Golden Age arc stuff, which is a lot rougher than the rest. He really didn't hit his stride until the GAA, imo. The anime is honestly a better introduction to the series than the first three volumes of the manga, ironically enough.
I'm trying to throw in some shows that haven't been mentioned (at least as I see), but Beware the Batman and Green Lantern: The Animated Series got some excellent characterization that is sometimes understated, but says more in a few lines of dialogue than other shows take entire seasons to do so. The former also had some excellently-paced third-parters, while the latter had a plot-driving romance that DIDN'T get on my nerves. Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated is a pretty clever take on the franchise that is self-aware without being smug about it, and sincere when it wants to be. The kick-ass plot and excellent atmosphere definitely helped. Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters is an underrated one. It follows a lot of the cliches of the teen hero cartoons common in the mid-2000s, but it executes them well. The three protagonists feel sufficiently fleshed out, the humor never gets obnoxious, even when it doesn't land, and it peppers in a lot of characterization that is fun to revisit once you've seen the series and know every motivation and plot twist. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power also has a very strong focus on characters. Everyone gets a moment to shine, but I'll be lying if I said the main draw wasn't Adora and Catra's tragic journey from lifelong friends to sworn enemies.
My favorites in no particular order: Gargoyles Gravity Falls Scooby-Doo: Mystery Inc. Craig of the Creek Jonny Quest
Cities of gold. Was nick's avatar before avatar. Also got away with deaths, blood and curse words in a nick cartoon! Robotech/macros was well wrote for it's time. Outlaw star was a fun show for it's time also. the 200x he-man and ninja turtles shows were great.
Ah, there’s one I forgot. The Mike Young Productions 2003 He-Man show was extremely well written. They expanded on ideas introduced in the original Filmation series and gave origin/backstories to many of the supporting cast (Two-Bad and Stinkor were probably the best). They even tackled fan topics like the fact that Mekaneck’s power sucks; a whole episode was centered around his inferiority complex around the other Masters
Both Avatar shows Gargoyles Transformers Animated Beast Wars and Machines Spongebob seasons 1-3 I’d like to say TMNT 2003, but I think that I was always more impressed by the long running, continuity rich story arcs which as a kid I’d never really seen before. Because even their best episodes kinda had some generic doom and gloom writing sometimes. Writing was still really good but I wanna be fair because that was my definitive show.
